March 24, 2009
By Pat McCaughan

An El Paso County district judge ruled March 24 that the property and assets of the landmark Grace and St. Stephen's Church in downtown Colorado Springs are held in trust for the mission and ministry of the Episcopal Church (TEC) and the Denver-based Diocese of Colorado, and ordered a disaffiliated group to vacate the $17 million property.

Judge Larry E. Schwartz, in a 28-page ruling, stated that the parish's "founding documents, various bylaws, relevant canons of the general church and consistent parish loyalty to the Diocese over most of its 135-year existence demonstrate a unity of purpose on the part of the parish and the general church that reflects the intent that all property held by the parish would be dedicated to and utilized for the advancement of the work of [the Episcopal Church]."

"While freedom of religion recognizes the right of any faction within a church to leave that church whenever they choose, the trust that has been created through past generations of members of Grace Church and St. Stephens prohibits the departing parish members from taking the property with them," Schwartz concluded.

"This case required a significant commitment from both the Diocese and the Episcopal Church to protect the parish for future generations of Episcopalians, and we are very pleased with the court's ruling," said Heather Anderson of the Goodwin-Procter firm, attorneys for The Episcopal Church. TEC had intervened in the case at the direction of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who acted on a request from the diocese. Anderson and Adam Chud, also of Goodwin-Procter, litigated the case on behalf of TEC.

Diocese of Colorado Bishop Robert J. O'Neill said the decision "honors the history" of the historic church. "We are extremely pleased that present and future generations of Episcopalians in the Colorado Springs community will continue to worship on Tejon Street," he said in a statement released after the ruling.

"We're coming home!" said Lynn L. Olney, senior warden of the continuing congregation, which was displaced when a majority of parishioners disaffiliated from TEC and realigned themselves with the Convocation of Anglican Churches in America (CANA), a self-described mission of the Anglican Church of Nigeria. That group claimed the building, forcing Olney and about 500 members to worship in nearby First Christian Church.

"We invite all our friends to come home with us," Olney said in the statement released to the media. "During the past two years of exile, our parish congregation has shown the meaning of a faith community. Now, we're coming home!"

The Rev. Martin Pearsall, priest at Grace and St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, added, "There are no winners here, just lots of wounded faithful people. It will be our task and responsibility in the months ahead to strive for healing and to reach out into the community."

Disaffiliated congregation ordered to vacate by April 1

The Rev. Alan R. Crippen II, a CANA priest and spokesperson for the disaffiliated Grace and St. Stephen's congregation, said the group intends to abide by the judge's order to leave the building by April 1. He believes the March 24 ruling effectively ends years of festering disputes over theological and doctrinal issues, he added.

"It's a sad day," he said in a telephone interview from the church office. "The majority of the congregation voted to leave the Episcopal Church (TEC) because it believes TEC left them and no longer believes what Episcopalians have believed for centuries."

While under the leadership of the Rev. Don Armstrong, former rector, a majority of the 2,400-member congregation in 2007 voted to disaffiliate from the TEC but claimed ownership of the church, an architectural and social icon in southern Colorado for more than a century.

Attorneys for the disaffiliated group had argued they were the rightful owners of the property under Colorado's "neutral principles of law." They maintained that Grace Church was incorporated as a separate nonprofit corporation and not specifically as a subsidiary organization of TEC.

But Schwartz, who handed down his decision about two weeks after the March 11 conclusion of the trial, rejected the group's claim that no property trust was ever explicitly created.

Over the course of the five-week trial, the court viewed thousands of pages of exhibits and heard expert testimony from church historians, and canonists. But Schwartz ultimately ordered that all of the parish's real and personal property is "vested in the Episcopal Church of the United State[s] and the Diocese of the State of Colorado," and that the breakaway group must "immediately cease all use and relinquish all possession, control, and dominion over the disputed property."

Armstrong, in a prepared release, said the congregation will take some time to review Schwartz's ruling before formally responding. "There is much yet to be settled even with this significant ruling now issued.

"This decision is one major step out of the ambiguity in which we have lived these past two years and will allow us to more readily refocus on gospel work and service," said Armstrong, who was deposed by Bishop O'Neill in 2007.

Armstrong, who became rector of the congregation in 1987, is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation into allegations he misappropriated parish funds. No criminal charges have as yet been filed in that matter, although parish financial records and computers were seized during a November 2008 police raid.

A year earlier, an ecclesiastical court had judged Armstrong guilty of financial improprieties and sentenced him to deposition from ordained ministry. On September 26, 2007, the five-member panel of clergy and laity unanimously found him "guilty on all counts … (of) theft of $392,409.93 from Grace Church and causing Grace Church to issue false W-2s and underreport Armstrong's benefits by $548,097.27," according to a diocesan spokesperson.

The diocesan court also found Armstrong guilty on four other charges, including receiving illegal loans totaling $122,497.16 as well as "unauthorized encumbrance and alienation of Grace Church's real property, violation of the temporary inhibition placed on Armstrong and improper use of clergy discretionary funds and failure to maintain proper accounting records."

A November 26, 2008 Colorado Independent article listed allegations that Armstrong used church money to pay for college for his children and for other personal use. Armstrong, who refused to appear at his ecclesiastical trial, says he is innocent and maintains he was already an active CANA priest and considering leaving TEC when the investigation against him was launched.

But according to Beckett Stokes, diocesan communications director, "The day the standing committee was to issue the presentment against him (Armstrong) for the misconduct was the day he joined the CANA group."

Crippen said Armstrong "is a priest in good standing in CANA" and added that he did not know any details about ongoing investigations.

He said he was not sure where the dissident congregation would worship. "A lot of people in our congregation are understandably very attached to this lovely, elegant and historic property. They've baptized their children, married their sons and daughters here; buried their parents and loved ones and friends here. It's clearly more than a building."

But, he added that "it's very unlikely" the group will appeal the court ruling. "It is an outcome of two years of prayer during the trial … and so the court has spoken. God's will has been done and we are looking forward to what our new life together will be and where it will be."

The Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, in a press release issued by the disaffiliated group, called Tuesday's ruling "disappointing" but also "a new beginning for Grace Church and St. Stephen's in its partnership with CANA. "I anticipate that the parish's best days are as yet ahead," added Minns, missionary bishop for CANA.

Local media reported that police were called to the church by Armstrong a few hours after the court's ruling. Armstrong said that security guards hired by the diocese who were on the property to patrol it were trespassing.

Armstrong told a Colorado Springs Gazette reporter that "they have no right to be on the property until April."

The Episcopal Diocese of Colorado includes 115 congregations and diocesan institutions throughout the state.

Episcopal News Service
The Rev. Pat McCaughan is Episcopal Life Media correspondent for Provinces VII and VIII and the House of Bishops. She is based in Los Angeles.